Sr. Diana's Ordination and Sermons

Hymns for Lent Madness

During Lent, Sr. Diana followed Lent Madness (lentmadness.org) and found herself . . . er . . . . “inspired” to write lyrics for hymns about each day’s saints. In response to requests for the collection, we are making the PDF available here. Click the link below to view and download.

In the Collect for the Transfiguration we pray, “Grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may by faith behold the King in his beauty . . .” It’s tempting to interpret this as only about the glories of the life to come after our deaths. But Jesus was so emphatic about the reign of God also being in the here and now – among and within us – that it seems reasonable to look for that holy presence without waiting until we die – especially in the midst of what the prayer so aptly calls disquietude –in the midst of the everyday joys and challenges of life.

Here’s one small example. One of the core practices of living the religious life is the Divine Office. Day in and day out, morning, noon, evening and night, the community comes together to worship – mostly through praying and singing Psalms and reading other Scripture. It creates a rhythm to the day. It’s a regular reminder of God’s presence; of love, of our responsibilities and privileges as Christians. It helps us to put down the merely urgent for a few minutes to try to be attentive to what is truly important.

As you can imagine, however, sometimes it gets old. Sometimes the last thing you want to do is stop what you are doing to go recite those same Psalms and say those same prayers and sing those same hymns one more time. Sometimes you just drift through it, barely awake or you indulge in annoyance at the way someone else is saying it. And sometimes God surprises you with “deliverance from disquietude”. Sometimes that Transfiguring light sneaks up on you.

Sacramental Priesthood

Sermon at the Ordination to the Priesthoodof

Diana Lynn Doncaster

Thursday in Easter 5, May 7, 2015

Chapel of the Transfiguration,Glendale, Ohio

Fr. Han van den Blink

1. We are gathered in this holy place to witness, and by our prayerful presence, to participate in Sr. Diana Dorothea’s ordination to the priesthood. This is an occasion of great joy and thanksgiving. Joy and thanksgiving that, after many years of discernment, struggle and preparation, the day of her consecration to this holy office has arrived. And joy and thanksgiving that so many of us who love her and believe in her can be with her on this special day.